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Service Benchmarking does not mean that you look at your competition, that’s competitive intelligence. Service Benchmarking means that you look at other organizations to see what they are doing? In other parts of the world or in other industries that we could learn from? 

So, for example, if you’re doing things online, you might want to learn from Amazon. If you’re doing things face to face, over the counter, you might want to learn from the hotel check in. If you’re doing things where there’s a transaction and you’re following up to make sure that something was complete. You might want to do a bank mortgage application study. Something that’s not your direct industry, but it’s still service. You could learn from. So, where did Changi Airport get this idea? 

Well, where else, aside from airports do families gather in groups. You always have to wait. There’s always some stress because you’ve got your passport, your money and there’s frequent arrivals and departures. Where else? Not an airport. Families and other groups come together. You always have to wait. There’s a certain amount of stress, and there’s frequent arrival and departure and arrival and departure. Where did Changi International Airport get this idea? It wasn’t from another airport, but it was somewhere else. Another different service environment. Where was it?

Hospitals. 

So what do hospitals do to give guests, families, patients a place to relax and sit and be quiet and Destress, they create gardens. talking about the nice hospitals. The really nice hospitals have a really nice garden, in the garden, they have flowers and if you have enough flowers, what do you get? Butterflies. Changi Airport went straight for the butterflies. 

Ever been to an airport and seen people sleeping on the floor? When you see that, how do you feel? You don’t feel good to see it, Right? You’re not even the one sleeping on the floor. You don’t like it. 

So Changi Airport created all these resting areas. Not only for the people who needed to rest. But so that everybody else doesn’t have the negative perception point and the koi fish ponds because it’s an Asian environment and the fish represent prosperity and long life and the art forms. So that people are going “Am I in a museum or am I in an Airport. This is what drives them a hundred percent of the time. 

Of course, they’re running an airport, but it’s your experience as a passenger going in through the airport. That’s what turns them on. They realize that that experience has to be by Design. You can’t just let the check-in people do the check-in job, and then the security people do the security job. Then the immigration people do the immigration job. Then the lounge people do the lounge job and think that you’re going to end up with a good experience. 

You leaders have to take this higher level perspective from the very first moment. Somebody hears about Al Ansari.

Where did that happen? Did it happen online? Did it happen in an advertisement? Did it happen in a shopping mall, did it happen over the phone. 

What was that first point of contact that they experienced and they haven’t even told you, they haven’t started to fill out an application yet. They even told you how much money is involved, but the experience is already happening. 

So, this is not just about your process. This is about perception.